{Charleston, West Virginia}...A handful of member of United Electrical Radio Machine Workers Local 170 protested outside the Davis Building in Charleston Tuesday morning. State hospital and nursing home employees claim the Department of Health and Human Resources is forcing them to work overtime, under extreme conditions, for little pay. Protestors were there to try and get a meeting set up with the Acting Secretary of the DHHR. John Thompson, a UE International Representative who led the protest, says the group has been trying to do so for more than a year, and now, they plan to file a lawsuit against the state agency for violating the Family and Medical Leave Act, Americans with Disabilities Act and the Fair Labor Standards Act. Jamie Baton, who works at Sharpe Hospital in Lewis County, and Thompson said, after the June 29th derecho, the hospital had no power for six days. Thompson said it seemed like the DHHR didn't care what was happening at Sharpe, and the state had no evacuation plan to move those residents out of the facility.
